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﻿io________________________________ SANTA CLAUS. The dear, jolly, warm-hearted old fellow 1 How I love him! arid how I have always loved him siuce that Christinas morning years agone, when, in my baby stockings, I found a cunning India-rubber doll,—a doll that could be squeezed and kissed and tossed about without any fear of fracturing its skull, but which, alas ! soon lost its fresh complexion, and in its cracked and wrinkled black skin, looked much like Barnum’s modern edition of Joyce Ileth. In fact, I think I like him better even than when I was a child, for now I know how many hearts are cheered by his coming. I wish that I knew where he lived. Will any one tell me ? I would go and spend the 6uinrner with him sometime—not for his sugar plums, but because I should like to advise him a little about his Christmas presents. I would tell him of the hundreds and hundreds of pule, puny, ragged and wretched children, to whom Christmas is no more than any other day ; who look longingly at the toys and candy, and all the beauty and joy around them, with a vague wonder in their sorrowful little henrls, why it is that they are cold and hungry all the year with never a Christmas-day. If Satita Claus’ merry eyes can do anything but twinkle with fun, 1 am sure he would cry at my story ; and then how we would work all the Bummer time, pntting up packages of goodies, aud warm comfortere, mittens and stockings, and book* with nice stories and pitrfures,—all for these little cues I Hut I do not know where he lives ; and, even, could I catch a glimpse of him at Christmas time, THE OREAD. -------- . ---------------- i and ask him about it, instead ol answering, or giving me his card, I presume he would just whistle to his rein-deer, and be off in a trice. That is his abrupt way ; but 1 like him right well, and just as well as though he never, by some oversight, carried my package by or lost it on the way. •--- - - - - — HOW CZROMOS ARE MALE. Chromo-Lithography is the art of printing pictures from stone, in color*. The mobt difficult branch of it —which is now generally implied when chromos are spoken of—is the art of reproducing oil paintings. When a chromo is made by a competent hand, it presents an exact coun terpart ef the original painting, will) the delicate gradations of ti ts and shades, and with much of the spirit and tone of a production of the brash and pallet. To understand how nhromos are made, the art of lithography must first be brielly explaiued. The stone used io lithographing is a species of limestone found in Bavaria, and is wrought into thick »Iabs with finely poll shed surface. The drawing is made upon the slab with a sort of colored sosp, which adheres to the stone, and enters into a chemical combination with it after the application of certain acids and gums. When the drawing i* complete the slab i-i put on the press, and carefnl-ly dampened with a sponge. The oil color (or ink) i* then applied with a common printer’s roller. Of cour»e the parts of the slab which contain no drawing, being wet, resist the ink; while the drawing itself, being oilv, relicts the water, but retains the color applied. It is thus th&t, without a rai.ed * nr tare or incision—a*in common printing, wood cuts and steel engraviu^s — lithography produces drawings from a perfectly smooth stone. In a chromo, the first proof is a light ground tint, corering nearly all the snrface. It has only a faint shad owy resemblance to the completed picture. It is in fact rather a shadow than an outline. The next proof from the second stono, contains all the shades of another color. This process is repeated again and again and again ; occasionally as often as thirty times. We saw one proof, in a visit to Mr. Prang’a establishment,— a gronp of cattle,—that had passed through the press twelve times; and it still bnre a greater resemblance to a spoiled colored photograph than to the charming picture which it subsequently became. The number of impressions, however, does nqf indicate th« nnmber of colors in a painting, because the colors and tints are greatly multiplied by combinations created in the process of printing one over another. In twenty five impressions, it is lometimes necessary and possible to produce a hnndreddistinct shades. The last impression is made by an engraved stone, which prodnces that resemblance to canvass noticeable in all of Mr. Prang's fine specimens.— English and German chromos, as a rule, do not attempt tn give this delicate fine touch, although it would seem essential in order to make • perfect imitation of a painting. The paper used is white, heavy “plate paper,” of the best quality, which has to pass through a heavy press, sliest by sheet, before its sar-fuee is fit to receive an impression. The process thns briefly explained, we need hardly add, requires equally great skill and judgment at every stage. A single erior is instantly delected by the practiced eye in the finished specimen. The prodoction of a chromo. if it is at all complicated, requires several month*—sometime several years—of careful preparation. The mere dr* win* of the different and entirely detached parts on so many different stones is of itwlf a work that requires an amouot of labor and a degree of skill, which, U> a p«r»oa unfamiliar with the process, wotild appear incredible. StiU more diffi-cnlt, and needing still greater skill, it the process of coloring This d«-